Frost resistance - a neglected driver of plant phenology and distribution?

抗冻性 - 植物物候和分布被忽视的驱动因素？

• 批准号: 521082753
• 负责人: Dr. Solveig Franziska Bucher
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Professur Biodiversität der Pflanzen
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/521082753?language=en
• 关键词: Frost; resistance; neglected; driver; plant

The ongoing global climate change is altering the abiotic conditions for life on earth at unprecedented rates which causes significant changes in plant performance and distribution. In general, most plant species adapt to a changing climate, i.e. warmer temperatures, by starting their spring phenology earlier and ending their autumn phenology later, leading to an overall increase in growing-season length. Plant species also move their occurrence to more north-eastern sites or higher elevations to keep the abiotic conditions to which the plant populations are adapted constant. Previous studies have shown that phenological responses and range shifts are very species-specific, and not all plant species can change their phenology and occurrence to equally large extents. It is not clear why some species do change whereas others do not. The changes in phenology and range put plants at risk of late frost events, as these do still occur in a warming climate, and are in general more frequent at higher elevation and latitude. Plant functional traits describe fundamental properties of plants and provide a good insight into their ecological behaviour as well as their performance. In this project, I postulate that frost resistance (FR) is a key trait in functional ecology. The importance of FR has been widely neglected in previous research even though FR is a crucial factor for plant survival and performance, since it is laborious to measure. More specifically, in this project I will test the two overall hypotheses that: 1. A species’ ability to shift its spring phenology to earlier dates is driven by its ability to tolerate late-frost events as shifts without high FR will lead to frost damages. 2. A species’ ability to shift its distributional range towards the northeast and higher elevational sites is driven by its ability to tolerate late-frost events as the likelihood of late-frost events increase with these shifts. In parallel, we will assess the impact of other plant functional traits relating to plant performance, which are already widely measured, to illustrate the impact of FR as compared with other traits of species. I will combine these hypotheses in this project and collect and analyse data from a wide geographical range and along elevational gradients. We shall use previously published data in a meta-analysis and data from a network of Botanical Gardens across the northern hemisphere, where the phenology of herbaceous species is monitored using standardised protocols. These field observations will be complemented by a greenhouse experiment, where a selected abiotic factor (temperature) can be manipulated and plants from different origins observed. Assessing the contribution of FR to the shifts in phenology and to the spatial extent of a species will help us to forecast species’ behaviour under further changes in climate and to fine-tune the predictions of plant community compositions and therefore biodiversity during further climate change.

持续的全球气候变化正在以前所未有的速度改变地球上生命的非生物条件，导致植物性能和分布发生重大变化。一般来说，大多数植物物种通过较早开始春季物候期和较晚结束秋季物候期来适应气候变化，即温度升高，导致生长季节长度总体增加。植物物种也将它们的出现转移到更东北的地点或更高的海拔，以保持植物种群所适应的非生物条件不变。以往的研究表明，物候反应和范围转移是非常物种特异性的，并不是所有的植物物种可以改变他们的物候和发生同样大的程度。目前还不清楚为什么有些物种会发生变化，而另一些物种则不会。物候和范围的变化使植物面临晚霜事件的风险，因为这些事件仍然发生在变暖的气候中，并且通常在较高的海拔和纬度更频繁。植物功能性状描述了植物的基本特性，并提供了一个很好的洞察他们的生态行为以及他们的表现。在这个项目中，我假设抗冻性（FR）是功能生态学中的一个关键性状。尽管FR是植物存活和生长的关键因素，但在以往的研究中，FR的重要性被广泛忽视，因为它很难测量。更具体地说，在这个项目中，我将测试两个总体假设：1。一个物种的能力，以改变其春季物候期，以较早的日期是由其能力，以容忍晚霜事件的变化没有高FR将导致霜冻损害。2.一个物种的能力，以改变其分布范围向东北和海拔较高的网站是由它的能力，以容忍晚霜事件的可能性增加，晚霜事件与这些转变。与此同时，我们将评估其他植物功能性状的影响与植物的性能，这已经被广泛测量，以说明FR的影响相比，其他性状的物种。我将联合收割机在这个项目中结合这些假设，并收集和分析数据，从广泛的地理范围和沿着海拔梯度。我们将使用以前发表的数据在荟萃分析和数据从网络的植物园在整个北方半球，在那里的物候草本植物的监测使用标准化的协议。这些实地观察将辅之以温室实验，其中可以操纵选定的非生物因素（温度），并观察不同来源的植物。评估FR对物候变化和物种空间范围的贡献将有助于我们预测气候进一步变化下的物种行为，并在进一步的气候变化期间微调植物群落组成的预测，从而改善生物多样性。